NNSquad - Network Neutrality Squad
[ NNSquad ] IP address is "Personal information" in Switzerland
----- Forwarded message from Dave Farber <dave@farber.net> ----- Date: Sat, 11 Sep 2010 15:15:53 -0400 From: Dave Farber <dave@farber.net> Subject: [IP] Fwd: IP address is "Personal information" in Switzerland Reply-To: dave@farber.net To: ip <ip@listbox.com> 57C25D4C-BDF7-11DF-A201-9F55FFED06CC: Begin forwarded message: > From: Randall Webmail <rvh40@insightbb.com> > Date: September 11, 2010 12:41:57 PM EDT > To: johnmacsgroup@yahoogroups.com, dewayne@warpspeed.com, dave@farber.net > Subject: IP address is "Personal information" in Switzerland > > "P2P investigations now illegal in Switzerland > By Nate Anderson | Last updated September 10, 2010 12:35 PM > > Switzerland, a longtime haven for all kinds of financial shenanigans, has just expanded its reputation for "discretion" to cover file-sharing as well. That's the conclusion of Logistep AG, anyway, as a Swiss court has just gutted its P2P surveillance business with a ruling that says gathering even publicly available information is illegal. > > Logistep has operated in Switzerland since 2004, doing what all of these firms do: trolling BitTorrent sites for movies, music, or software, then connecting to swarms and logging the information of everyone offering the file. Bits of the file are downloaded as proof that these aren't simply "mistitled" files, and information like IP address, file hash value, and time of day are recorded in a giant spreadsheet. Content providers who rely on Logistep can take this information and submit it to local courts, seeking to identify and then sue individual file-swappers. > > But Europe has fairly strict data privacy laws and a cultural expectation that data collection will be disclosed, with the data used sparingly. This often alarms Internet advertising companies like Google, which objected in 2008 to an EU proposal to label IP addresses "personal data."" [SNIP] > > http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/09/switzerland-gathering-ip-addresses-from-bittorrent-sites-illegal.ars?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss > > http://snipurl.com/12pve8 ------------------------------------------- ----- End forwarded message -----